This invention relates to improvement in methods and devices used in prefabricated building construction. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a new and improved connecting hinge device and panel system incorporating the same for a method of erection in which a modular length roof panel is raised into position for integration with adjoining parts of the building structure and, with wall panels, initially folded under the roof panel, being gradually lowered into depending upright positions as the roof panel reaches design elevation. The invention is herein illustratively described by reference to the presently preferred embodiment thereof; however, it will be recognized that certain modifications and changes with respect to details may be made without departing from the essential features involved.
The present invention is directed to a novel joint reinforcement and connecting hinge means incorporated in prefabricated panel structures for use in foldable panel prefabricated building panel systems generally of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,968,618 (Johnson); 3,494,092 (Johnson); 3,953,947 (Heinrich); 3,971,185 (Heinrich) and 3,600,870 (Greenhalgh). Tenani, 3,838,902, is of limited interest regarding its hinging means.
The great increase of labor and materials costs in the construction of buildings of all types has required the industry to utilize prefabrication methods and many other economies wherever practicable, and in connection therewith to employ structural designs closely engineered for strength with maximum economy of parts and materials. In the design and construction of warehouse and auditorium buildings, for example, it has been found possible to effect large savings with full-span modular length section roof panels having foldable wall panels hingedly joined to opposite ends of the roof panel. Any desired number of such multi-panel modular length sections of standardized mutually compatible design can be joined together edge to edge progressively in order to provide a building of the desired length. When properly designed and constructed, no intermediate bearing walls or lateral stiffener partitions are necessary in a multi-section building erected by such methods. The structural integrity of the individual prefabricated roof and wall and the strength and proper placement of interconnections between them provides all the rigidity and strength required. In such systems it is found that large cost savings are realizable and safer, more rapid erection made possible on the building site if the wall and roof panels of a modular length section, initially folded into parallel relationship at the factory to be shipped and layed out at the site, are permitted to unfold automatically incident to the process of elevating the roof panel to installed height.
An important object of this invention is to provide an improved connecting hinge system that joins the foldable wall panels by their upper edges to the outer edges of the roof panel with the parts positionally interrelated and guided thereby to automatically assume their intended final positional relationship as the roof panel is elevated to its installed position. A more specific object is to devise a low-cost connecting hinge arrangement for that purpose that also serves as a reinforcement tie between intersection panel corner members of the wall panel section both during shipment and handling and in the final structure itself.
Still another object of the invention is to devise a connecting hinge and structural reinforcement corner member for modular length building panel sections permitting those sections to be transported and handled in mutually folded relationship and facilitating their incorporation in a completed building structure by guiding the members reliably and accurately into final positional relationship as they are moved in a single hoisting step into installed position.